Australia

updated Mon. March 19, 2018

Sydney is finished. As my dear friend Andrew P Street told the ABC yesterday from his new base of Adelaide, Sydney is a cesspit of overpriced houses connected by hopeless public transport, where you can't get a drink anywhere at all and every single cultural centre has closed down. The only touristÃÂ ...

A species of marsupial, the eastern quoll, has returned to the wild in mainland Australia for the first time in about half a century. The native animals were once found along Australia's east coast until they were devastated by foxes. About 20 eastern quolls from Tasmania were released into a national park in New South WalesÃÂ ...

Women from Australia's tiny Uighur community stepped out on Thursday to protest alleged discrimination by the Chinese Government against the ethnic minority. Uighurs, who are a Muslim Turkic minority living in Xinjiang in China's north-west, have called on Canberra to act on reports the ChineseÃÂ ...

Turnbull and Bishop said Australia supported the May government's efforts to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice, and also backed the UK's right to take "retaliatory measures, including its decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats and to call for an emergency session of the UN Security Council".

The Australian justice system's over-incarceration of indigenousAustralians is evidence of 'systemic racism', according to Australia's peak law body. A quarter of all Australian prisoners are indigenous, when they represent less than three per cent of the national population. The head of the Law Council ofÃÂ ...

Beijing: The Chinese education ministry says Australia is denying visas to Chinese PhD students even though they have been offered places with Australian universities. In comments to Fairfax Media, the Chinese education ministry spokesman said Chinese students had not only faced delays in visaÃÂ ...

That exhibition, Colony: Australia 1770-1861, is paired with Colony: Frontier Wars, a collection of more than 200 contemporary works largely produced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Frontier Wars is a direct response to colonial structures and history. Three floors above where Glover'sÃÂ ...

Australia is not a member of Asean, nor is it planning to be, but this weekend's Asean summit in Sydney is a significant step in binding Australia closer to its regional neighbours through trade and increased counter-terrorism cooperation. Despite the possible diplomatic benefits, Australia has been warnedÃÂ ...

While the Australian arm said it was business as usual for its 39 stores, the Wall Street Journal quoted Toys 'R' Us chief executive David Brandon as telling staff the company was likely to liquidate operations in France, Spain, Poland and Australia as well. In Britain, the remaining 75 Toys 'R' Us shops willÃÂ ...

Sadly, Dutton is not motivated by his love of humanity but rather he is shoring up support among the right-wing voter base in Australia. He is appealing to the racist element in the Australian body politic that doesn't mind immigration so long as those landing on Australia's shores are white and middle class.

Tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has said the federal government migration policies may force his software company Atlassian to move its global headquarters away from Australia to attract talent. Appearing in Melbourne before the Senate's Select Committee on the Future of Work and Workers onÃÂ ...

Peter Scully, right, is accused of raping and trafficking two girls in the Philippines. He has reportedly received $500,000 in legal costs under a scheme for Australians accused of serious crimes overseas. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images. The federal government is considering tightening the rules for aÃÂ ...

Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull tweeted a video on Monday saying his country has achieved a "commitment" from President Trump that his tariff plan on steel and aluminum won't apply to exports from Australia. Mr. Trump signed proclamations for his new steel and aluminum tariffs lastÃÂ ...

A century to opener Nicole Bolton has helped the Australian women's cricket team claim an eight-wicket victory in its one-day series opener against India in Vadodara. Australia comfortably chased down India's total of 201 with more than 17 overs to spare. Bolton, who finished the day unbeaten on 100,ÃÂ ...

The island - roughly halfway between Australia and New Zealand - had been governed by its legislative assembly since 1979, until the Australian government's decision in 2015 to revoke its autonomy. Australian federal and state laws are now enforced and islanders are now entitled to Medicare and otherÃÂ ...

Paul Keating has backed Bill Shorten's overhaul of dividend imputation, saying the system the Labor leader proposes mirrors the original framework he set down in the late 1980s. The former Labor prime minister, who was consulted before Tuesday's public announcement, told Guardian Australia the newÃÂ ...

According to Sky News Australia, one of the lines of inquiry reportedly being followed by police is whether he may have been suffocated. After being charged with murder, Finch made a brief appearance at Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Friday. The Age newspaper reported that she appeared dazed asÃÂ ...

A DFAT spokesperson said the Federal Government, through Geoscience Australia, had agreed to the request "to provide advice on the scientific basis of the earthquake and seismic activity in the region." Geoscience Australia told the ABC in a statement that assessment done since the quake "indicatesÃÂ ...

Water floods a gas station in north Queensland, parts of which remain at risk of flooding. Photograph: Social Media/Reuters. Residents of the rain-hit north Queensland town of Innisfail have been warned they may need to flee to higher ground. The call comes after the river levels rose as locals welcomedÃÂ ...

Swan said on Saturday he had entered the field "because I want to make a contribution to winning the battle of ideas with the radical right that have taken over the Liberal party of Australia". The right faction's candidate was expected to be the union official Tony Sheldon, but Swan has been prevailed uponÃÂ ...

Operations at one of Australia's largest gold mines had to be temporarily suspended on Friday after a partial wall collapse at one of the mine's tailings dams. The wall collapse at the Cadia mine comes just a few days after two earthquakes hit the area, located just south of Orange. The wall breach wasÃÂ ...

The killer then went back to his car, got a second semi-automatic rifle, and looked for more victims. In a little more than 30 minutes, he killed 35 people and wounded 23. It was the worst mass killing ever committed by a single person in Australia's history. Here are four eyewitness accounts of the killings fromÃÂ ...

The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has confirmed that Australia has won a reprieve from the United States' global steel and aluminium tariffs, after the US president, Donald Trump, earlier tweeted that he and Turnbull were working on a "security agreement" for an exemption. In a post on Twitter, TrumpÃÂ ...

The Turnbull government is quietly confident that Australia may get an exemption from the tariffs. The total value of steel imports to the US is $17bn, of which Australia contributes just $200m - about 1%. Canada and Mexico, which have been granted exemptions, contribute about 25% of the total betweenÃÂ ...

The name "Margaret River" is a catchall: It's a river, a town, and a region at the southwesternmost point of Australia. Despite the generality, tell any Australian you are "going down to Margs" and they will know precisely where you are heading. On the other hand, tell an American, and they might ask ifÃÂ ...

SINGAPORE: The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) on Thursday (Mar 8) announced a recall of all rockmelons from Australia as a "precautionary measure". This is because it received new information from Australian authorities, indicating that more listeria-affected consignments had been exportedÃÂ ...

A landmark court case in the Northern Territory is set to consider a challenge to a massive land-clearing approval based on its impacts on climate change. The case, brought by the Environment Centre NT, is believed to be the first of its kind in Australia, using the consideration of greenhouse gas emissionsÃÂ ...

Over the past five years, Australia's economy has been growing at an average of just 2.4% each year, and GDP per capita (which takes into account population growth) has averaged just 0.9% growth. Both of these levels are consistent with periods in the past where we have been in a recession.

Trade Minister Steve Ciobo is optimistic the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact will take effect by the end of the year after Australia signed on to the jobs-boosting 11-country deal. The deal will eliminate 98 per cent of tariffs in a marketplace worth close to $US14 trillion. Speaking at the signing ceremony inÃÂ ...

Australia is on track to become the first country in the world to eradicate cervical cancer. With some more hard work, scientists are now predicting that cervical cancer could eventually become a disease of the past. A woman dies of cervical cancer every 2 minutes. In 99.9 percent of cases, it is caused by theÃÂ ...

An Australian farmer has found six cows lying dead in a row, in what experts have attributed to a lightning strike. The animals were discovered next to a barbed-wire fence on a paddock in Queensland last week, a few days after a heavy storm. The cows' owner, Derek Shirley, said he was "stunned" by theÃÂ ...

A controversial new book asserts that the Chinese government is undermining Australia's sovereignty through a network of local agents. Silent Invasion: How China is Turning Australia into a Puppet State has fuelled debate - some have welcomed discussion about China's influence, while others say itÃÂ ...

US President Donald Trump appears set to avoid slapping steel and aluminium tariffs on Australia after intense lobbying by Australian officials, who argued the tariffs would pose a national security risk. On Friday morning, Mr Trump talked up the US-Australian relationship and indicated Australia would beÃÂ ...

The Australian government has told Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen that his recent threat to assault protesters when he visits the island continent later this month is unacceptable, as outrage over the remarks intensifies. Last week, Hun Sen threatened to withdraw from the ASEAN-Australia SpecialÃÂ ...

One of Australia's largest cotton companies reaped a $52m windfall in the sale of water rights to federal government. Documents released to the Senate show Eastern AustraliaAgriculture sold its overland water rights to the federal government in July last year for $79m, and then booked a $52m gain on theÃÂ ...

New Zealand's Foreign Minister has issued a stark warning that Australia and New Zealand's influence in the Pacific is waning as China flexes its muscles. Winston Peters used an address to the Lowy Institute in Sydney to vow that New Zealand would pour more money and resources into the region.

Thousands of child migrants who were forcibly sent to Australia from Britain after World War II are likely to be compensated for the abuse and neglect they suffered. An independent inquiry in the UK into the post-War migration policy found it was "fundamentally flawed". It has urged the British Government toÃÂ ...

UPDATE: Trade Minister Steven Ciobo says he remains hopeful Australia will be spared from sweeping United States' tariffs applied to steel and aluminium ... Speaking exclusively to The Australian last night, before the president's announcement, Mr Ciobo said he had lobbied hard to have AustraliaÃÂ ...

Cameron Bancroft shuffled across and poked to the wicketkeeper on 5, while David Warner batted solidly through the session for 51, but edged to slip with one minute to lunch while trying to block out the final balls. It was still a fair return for Warner, who had been captaining Australia's Twenty20 side inÃÂ ...

In an earlier post I highlighted that Australia is set to embrace a more active role in space. This shift away from a primarily earth-bound focus on space opens up some interesting possibilities. Certainly, we've come a long way from the early days of the European Launcher Development OrganisationÃÂ ...

But some figures within the movement are prepared to acknowledge that mistakes have been made. Tim Lyons, a former assistant secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, says workers are now paying the price for decisions made when the Hawke-Keating governments ended Australia's systemÃÂ ...

The amnesty, which ran from July through September, netted almost 2,500 semi-automatic and fully automatic weapons that were the target firearms legislation beginning in 1996 that banned private ownership of such rifles. Unregistered firearms are illegal in Australia and owning one carries a penalty upÃÂ ...

For the past four years workers across Australia have for the first time outside of a recession seen their living standards stagnate. Where once it was taken for granted that you would be better off now than you were in the past, the average Australian household has less disposable income in real terms thanÃÂ ...

An Australian government minister has been criticised after she threatened to name female political staffers "over which... rumours abound". jobs Minister Michaelia Cash made the comment as she was trying to fend off Labor questioning during a Senate Estimates hearing. Ms Cash, the former minister forÃÂ ...

We are complacent, we are blind and we are ignoring the lessons of history at our peril. These are the warnings of some doomsday Economists who fear we are heading towards the same financial cliff that hurled the world into a crisis from which we are still emerging. Very few experts saw the globalÃÂ ...

For the past four years workers across Australia have for the first time outside of a recession seen their living standards stagnate. Where once it was taken for granted that you would be better off now than you were in the past, the average Australian household has less disposable income in real terms thanÃÂ ...

The Tamil asylum seeker forcibly deported from Australia last week is at liberty in Sri Lanka, but facing ongoing harassment and intimidation from security forces, human rights advocates have reported. Shantaruban was handcuffed and forcibly removed from Australia last week, after five years during whichÃÂ ...

Many children in Asian orphanages still have living parents, but are lured to institutions with the promise of education and a better life. Photograph: Piyal Adhikary/EPA. The federal government has announced plans to divert well-meaning Australian volunteers from foreign orphanages that exploit fakeÃÂ ...

A British woman who had an "obsession" with serial killers has been jailed for life for garotting, stabbing and burying the body of an autistic teenager in Western Australia. Jemma Lilley, 26, murdered Aaron Pajich, 18, at her home in Perth, burying him in a shallow grave in her garden and covering it withÃÂ ...

For the past four years workers across Australia have for the first time outside of a recession seen their living standards stagnate. As the cost of energy and health cover skyrockets, workers' wages growth is at record low levels considered implausible just five years ago. In the first part of a new series, GregÃÂ ...